


Sea Shanties

by Milo



Category: One Piece
Genre: Aromantic Asexual Luffy, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Nakamaship, Platonic Relationships, Platonic Romance, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-07-11
Packaged: 2019-05-24 14:28:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14956388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milo/pseuds/Milo
Summary: A collection of Luffy oneshots. Summaries of each on the individual chapters themselves.





	1. Wave Over Wave | Zoro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The captain and his first mate have a special sort of relationship.
> 
> For anyone wondering, yes the song used in this chapter is an actual song! Here's [a link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk9xIw6-aUg) to it!

Sleeping was never easy for Luffy. Makino had thought it was because he was secretly sad or lonely or something. But Luffy knew it was just because he had so many things to think about and no interest in spending any time asleep, of all things. This was no different.

The little dinghy he shared with the fierce pirate hunter Roronoa Zoro--now _his_ fierce pirate hunter, the greatest swordsman--bobbed in the waves as the current pulled it along. Hard to say where they were going. He hadn’t a clue where north was. Grandpa had shown him once, and Coby reminded him later, but he couldn’t remember now. Something about a star. There were a lot of those.

Zoro was fast asleep on the other side of the boat, chest slowly rising and falling with each breath. Luffy’s eyes were on him for a few minutes, before he looked away and bumped his head against the hull of the ship. How could Zoro sleep so easy when they were on this cool adventure?

He twiddled his thumbs in his lap, closed his eyes, and quietly hummed the tune of Wave Over Wave to himself, head bobbing back and forth with the verses in his head.

“...Okay, I’ll bite.”

Luffy opened his eyes. Zoro was studying him quizzically as he rested on the side of the boat. He grinned and propped himself up on his hands.

“Shishishi! Were you awake the whole time?” he asked. “We could’ve been playing a game.”

“Back there, with Morgan,” Zoro continued, ignoring his question. “You let your guard down. I could’ve cut you to ribbons and left. I could’ve let Morgan slice you in half.”

“And you didn’t,” Luffy replied without missing a beat.

“No, but--”

“But what?”

“Ugh, you’re still not _listening_ to me--”

Luffy frowned. “I can hear you just fine, Zoro.”

“Then why did you do that? You didn’t know a thing about me. You still don’t, and yet here we are floating in a boat in the middle of the damn ocean.” Zoro gestured around them at the dark sea. “You’ve heard the things people say about me, so...why?”

Luffy blinked at him. Then, he hummed, and put his arms behind his head and looked up toward the sky. Gee, the stars sure looked bright tonight.

“I mean, yeah, you could’ve hurt me. But I knew you weren’t going to,” he said. “People said plenty of things about you. Coby, the marines, the villagers…” He shrugged. “But people say a lot of things, y’know? I like to make my own decisions. I don’t know who you are, but neither do they.”

He looked back over to Zoro, who had a bewildered stare on his face that made Luffy laugh. It was the same stare that Coby had given him days prior when he said that the great demon pirate hunter Zoro could have been good. Was it really so surprising?

With the grin still on his face, he crossed the short distance between them and plopped down beside Zoro, shoulder-to-shoulder, and folded his hands over his stomach. Zoro furrowed his eyebrows and scooted away just enough so that they weren’t touching. That was okay. They could work on it.

“I wanted to hear what Zoro had to say about Zoro first,” Luffy continued. “You said you’re a man of your word, so I’m gonna believe you.”

Zoro blinked twice, shook his head, and then sighed. He cast his eyes upward.

“...That kind of mindset is going to get you killed someday,” he replied.

“Shishi! But Zoro will have my back if that happens, right?”

Zoro groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose, which Luffy accepted as an, “Of course I will”. He grinned wider. He removed his hat and placed it on his stomach as he looked back up to the stars. Zoro turned away, onto his side, presumably to go back to sleep. Luffy started humming again.

“ _Me name’s Gold Rogers, a pirate am I_ ,” he sang, the words slightly off-key. “ _On a three-masted schooner from Loguetown Isle_ \--”

“Don’t you dare.”

“Ehh?” He poked Zoro in the side, and pouted when his first mate swatted his hand away. “C’mon, everyone loves this one! You know you know the words, Zoro!”

“Some of us love sleeping more than old sea shanties, Luffy,” Zoro grumbled.

Luffy sat up again, put his hands on his hips, and huffed. If he wanted to sing, then he was going to sing anyway! It’s not like Zoro was actually sleeping.

“ _I've been the world over, north, south, east, and west_ ,” he continued. “ _But the middle of nowhere's where I likes it best_ \--”

Then, he found his smile again, and fell back against the ship, rocking it. The mast above them wobbled. His eyes widened when he saw it and it finally dawned on him. They were on a ship in the ocean, just like real pirates, sailing under the stars--gosh, there were so many and they were so pretty!

He inhaled deeply, and then exhaled through his mouth.

“-- _Where it’s wave over wave, sea over bow! I’m as happy a man as the sea will allow_ \--”

Zoro muttered something inaudible under his breath. Luffy’s fond gaze fell upon his back again.

“ _There's no other life for a pirate like me! But to sail the salt sea, boys, sail the sea… There's no other life but to sail the salt sea..._ ”

This was what freedom was like. Nothing out there, just them and their dreams and the sea. The Pirate King and the world’s greatest swordsman, and the world somewhere out there in the distance.

 

* * *

 

The doctor scolded and chastised Zoro for not only ripping his slow-healing wound clean open, but for daring to try fixing it with his own two hands as he bled all over himself. He’d said that it was a miracle in itself that Zoro was alive.

Luffy didn’t think so. Zoro was special, not because of a miracle. He was Zoro, the greatest swordsman. It wasn’t like his own body was going to stop him from achieving that.

Zoro dragged his fingertips down over the freshly sutured wound, grunting in pain when he hit an especially sore spot. Luffy swung his legs back and forth, head filled with ideas of him pointing to the sea and Nami leading them to whatever was out there. With that shark man under a pile of rubble, there was nothing stopping them from seeing what was over the horizon. He tilted the chair back and gazed out the far window, where the shore of Cocoyasi was visible.

Mihawk was out there somewhere, waiting. So was the All Blue, the people for Usopp to show his guts to, and the world Nami wanted to map with her own two hands. And in all of that was his freedom, somewhere far beyond even this vast sea. The image of Raftel in his mind made his stomach churn giddily.

“Hey. Luffy.” He turned to Zoro, who was regarding him with an unreadable expression. “Are you _seriously_ thinking we need a musician over a doctor?”

“Shishishi! We’ll find a doctor when we find one,” Luffy said. “Wounds will go away eventually. But a pirate’s always gotta sing, Zoro!”

He pressed his lips together and hummed the familiar baseline of a certain song, which had Zoro groaning.

“I swear to god, if you--”

“ _The work it is hard and the hours are long_ ,” Luffy sang, “ _My spirit is willing, my back it is strong_ \--C’mon, Zoro!” He elbowed Zoro, who yelped and shot him a glare. “Sing with me! The next line’s perfect for you!”

He looked disdainfully at Luffy, who showed him a bright smile. In the distance, the villagers were off dancing to some folk tune played with drums and a tambourine which Luffy had never heard before, eating and cheering, singing their own songs merrily. Sanji and Nami and Usopp were somewhere else having their own fun. Here it was just the two of them, and that was something special all its own in a way that he could never really put into words.

Zoro didn’t have to be anyone but Zoro. Luffy didn’t have to be anyone but Luffy.

Luffy snatched a fresh mug of whatever booze was sitting on the table that Zoro had already drank three full mugs of and held it out to him. Zoro stared at it, snorted, and accepted the offering.

“... _And when the work's over then whiskey we'll pour_ \--” Zoro began, making Luffy’s smile stretch to his ears.

“-- _We'll dance with the girls upon some foreign shore!_ ” Luffy finished for him.

As he said it, he pulled Zoro onto his feet. Zoro grit his teeth together. His drink sloshed over the side of the glass and splattered on the floorboards. Luffy hummed to himself and tugged Zoro around, one hand full of meat, two left feet tapping out an improvised dance number.

“Luffy, this is embarrassing--!” Zoro snapped. “People can see us!”

“Nobody’s looking, Zoro,” Luffy said. “Just me.”

And in that moment, it really did become just the two of them. Zoro’s ferocity slipped away, eyes locked with Luffy’s, the noise of the crowd dissipating until it was just the captain and his first mate celebrating their victory. In that moment, Zoro grinned. He gripped Luffy’s hand tight and spun him in a circle, to which Luffy cackled and dropped several meat chunks to the floor without a care.

He liked how well Zoro’s hand fit his.

“-- _Where it's wave over wave, sea over bow_ ,” Zoro went on. 

“ _I'm as happy a man as the sea will allow!_ ” Luffy added. 

They danced in a circle--sloppily, stepping on each other and laughing each time. Luffy got splashed by booze and Zoro’s shirt had chunks of red, saucy meat, and neither really cared.

“ _There's no other life for a pirate like me, but to sail the salt sea, boys, sail the sea!_ ”

It came from both of them, in unison, Zoro’s deep voice complimenting Luffy’s higher-pitched one in a way that made the song that much better, so much more enjoyable. Luffy paused, Zoro’s hand still clenched in his, and peered up at his first mate. Zoro was serious, uptight. But the Zoro right now had that look in his eyes--where Luffy swore he could peer into them and see the world’s greatest swordsman already.

“Shishishi!” Luffy laughed. “See? I knew you knew it!”

“Never said I didn’t,” Zoro said.

“Eh? I guess that’s true, huh…” Luffy rubbed his chin with the hand still clenching a chunk of fleshy meat on a bone. Barbeque sauce smeared across his cheek. “How come you’ve never sung with me before, though?”

Zoro faltered. He released Luffy’s hand a moment to scratch his head and look off and out into the woods behind the village.

“I’m supposed to be serious about all this.”

Luffy pressed his lips into a thin line and tilted his head to the side.

“That’s dumb,” he said, earning a confused look from Zoro. “You can be serious and have fun, too, Zoro. People who are just one way are boring anyhow. Angry Zoro and happy Zoro are still the same Zoro, y’know. And more Zoro is good.”

Zoro was silent. Then, he sat down on the floor, lifted the mug to his mouth, and chugged it like it was water. Luffy stuck out his tongue. How could he drink something so bitter so easily? The party continued on around them, yet they stayed right where they were, looking out at the palm trees and the bushes, the dark, wobbly lines of the ocean waves glittering in the moonlight.

Luffy settled down beside him and tentatively rested his head on Zoro’s shoulder. Zoro didn’t move, merely smirked.

“Heh,” he said. “What a weird Pirate King you are.”

“Well you’re a weird world’s greatest swordsman, so there,” Luffy countered, giggling. He rubbed his cheek against Zoro’s chest. “But I like my world’s greatest swordsman the way he is. Zoro’s the best.”

He felt an arm come down to rest over his side. He glanced down and saw Zoro’s hand resting on his hip. He sighed contentedly, and pressed into his first mate’s side, arms sagging around him, eyes closing. He was mindful of the stitches, though he wanted to touch them. Maybe when they weren’t so red...

The idea of him resting alongside Zoro popped into his mind, and he wondered briefly if Zoro was thinking the same.

“...Mm~mm,” he hummed. “ _There's no other life but to sail the salt sea_ …”

 

* * *

 

Brook’s violin was sweet and soft to his ears, and no matter how many times he played the same set of music, Luffy felt like he could keep listening to it repeatedly. And hearing the music of Wave Over Wave outside of the old singing of the Red Haired Pirates in his head for once sparked a new inspiration in him to sing along.

His new musician knew how to dance, too, and Luffy’s right left foot started looking a little more like a right right foot after a few lessons. It was hard to get his feet to stop. He heard the music in his sleep, even. The notes ringing from Brook’s violin seemed to push him along like the wind in the Sunny’s sails. Toward maps and seas and knowledge, fights and foes, and dreams--

“-- _There's no other life for a pirate like me, but to sail the salt sea, boys, sail the sea_ ,” he sang sloppily, that night’s dinner clogging his mouth and dripping down his chin. “ _There's no other life but to sail the salt sea_ …”

He swallowed what was in his mouth, paused, and then went on.

“... _I've sailed the wide oceans four decades or more_ \--”

“Hey, Luffy?” Usopp asked. “How come you always skip the third verse?”

“Huh?” Luffy said simply, tearing off a hunk of beef from the bone. “Isn’t it obvious? I don’t have a wife. And I don’t really want one.” He contemplated the thigh bone in his hand. “Or a husband. Or any of that relationship stuff.”

“No? How come?”

“I just don’t.”

“The world is filled with people and you’re still quite young,” Robin added, daintily dabbing her cup of hot water with a fresh teabag. “Fufufu. You might yet find someone special to whom you’d love to go home to.”

“Ehhhh~hhh…” Luffy scowled. “But I’m already home, aren’t I? You guys are a bunch of someone specials and I like seeing you.”

“What about mosshead?” came Sanji’s voice from the kitchen, over the sound of sizzling oil and the crackling fish skin. “Though he’d be one ugly-ass wife to come home to.”

Zoro briefly paused in polishing Wado Ichimoji to give Sanji the stink eye before he resumed methodically running the waterstone over her blade. Luffy looked between the two of them, then frowned at Sanji.

“Zoro’s a boy, Sanji,” he said.

“Point still stands.”

“Y’know, that’s true, isn’t it?” Nami eyed Luffy mischievously. She stabbed a piece of fruit with her fork and twirled it. “You’re at least a little married.”

The rough sound of waterstone on blade ceased. Luffy tilted his head in a silent question.

“...Oh come _on_ ,” Nami rolled her eyes. “You sleep together, you lay on him, you hold hands--pretty sure I’ve seen you two kissing. That’s what you do in relationships, Luffy.”

“I _know_ that.”

“Then why not just call it what it is?”

Silence.

Luffy lowered the bone in his hand to look toward Zoro, who was waiting patiently with interest. He felt the eyes of all his crewmates on him, too.

When he was a kid, he’d watch Shanks flirt with Makino and say all kinds of weird things--about her butt and her face and her boobs especially, like there was something interesting about them. He’d never understood it. Shanks told him that he would one day. Usopp made goofy googly eyes at Kaya, Nami and Vivi had been kissing in _that_ kind of way, Sanji turned into a noodle at passing women. He still didn’t understand.

On Thriller Bark, they’d met Lola, who’d been so desperate for love that she’d sought out zombies. He wondered vaguely why back then; why she needed it when she already found it in the people around her.

Now he looked at Zoro.

No googly heart eyes, no noodle arms, no noticing his butt. It was there, sure, but it was just a butt. He liked kissing Zoro, but not in the way Nami kissed Vivi. Zoro’s lap was warm and he was funny to listen to when he slept because he snored like a sawmill. His heartbeat was nice, his hair was soft, and he loved when Zoro smiled.

He loved Zoro. He loved Zoro a _lot_.

But no matter how long he stared, no matter what angle he looked, he couldn’t picture the two of them together in the same way as Lola and her imaginary husband (whom he pictured as a warthog in a suit) or Shanks and Makino.

“It’s different,” he stated plainly.

Another exasperated sound from Nami. “How?!”

“Just is.”

With that, Zoro broke eye contact with him and resumed sharpening his blade at the same pace as before. Luffy continued eating, ignoring the flurry his crew worked themselves into over his feelings. His feelings were his feelings. He knew best. If it was different then it was different.

 

* * *

 

He thought about it while on Amazon Lily.

There was a rocky outcropping where he liked to sit and think--and to escape Hancock’s weird googly eyes that she gave him and all the women who kept poking him like he was an exotic zoo animal. It’s not like boys and girls were _that_ different, he’d even met people who were a little bit of both, even. It wasn’t weird. These people were weird, though.

He drew a line with his finger along the horizon, right along the water. Usopp and Nami and Chopper and Brook and Robin and Franky and Sanji--and the Sunny, too--he liked imagining that they were all right there, in that one place. Something like the One Piece on Raftel, he supposed.

Somewhere out in the nothingness of the ocean was Zoro, too.

He laid on his stomach, put his chin on his arms, and swayed his feet back and forth. It kind of felt like that time when he was with Coby, where they’d been throwing the name Roronoa Zoro around and the face that went with it existed somewhere on the other side of the sun. Back then, he was excited to go there, to see new things, to meet new people. Now, it came with a different feeling.

He knew he’d see everyone again. But his heart still felt empty and heavy, and the scar on his chest ached. What he wouldn’t give for another night under the stars, shoulder-to-shoulder with his first mate.

“... _I’ve left Zoro lonely for these two years_ …” he began, slow and clunky as he tried to figure out the words to replace the verse with. “ _He made me a home and always_ \--uh--always…” He clicked his tongue. “... _fought my fears_ …?”

Zoro would think the improvised lyrics were dumb. He laughed.

He looked down at the ground beneath him, absentmindedly batting around some dry pebbles and broken snail shells that had been baking in the sun. One-by-one, he flicked them off the rocky surface into the water.

“... _But he couldn’t come out to bid farewell to me_ …”

He focused on the imaginary Raftel in the distance where everyone was. In his mind’s eye, he saw everyone smiling and waving, telling him to hurry up and reach them already. He saw Zoro at the forefront--standing tall and firm, with a small smile on his face. In turn, he felt a smile tugging at his lips.

How nice would it be to leap at him, arms outstretched, and feel Zoro’s warm body against his face. Zoro would yell at him for it, but he’d never do anything. He’d never do anything to hurt him.

He sniffed, wiped at his eyes, and then grinned off toward where he thought Zoro was.

“Someone special to go home to, huh...”

 

* * *

 

With the Sunny’s bubble coating shining in the harbor and the crew waving to him from the deck, two years suddenly felt like two days. His feet carried him off, the Marines in tow, Rayleigh watching him in the distance. The Sabaody dirt beneath his feet came with that familiar squishy feeling, and he ran across it like he’d done it all his life. The tangles and snares of the undergrowth couldn’t hold him back just as the Pacifistas were little more than boulders to hurdle over.

The Pirate King didn’t have time for this. Not when his best crew was waiting for him. 

Not when his first mate was right there.

Zoro.

 _Zoro_ was _right there_.

He’s different now, just like they all were. Different clothes, missing an eye--but he’s still so very much the same Zoro. And, somehow, the way Zoro’s cheeks creased when he grinned was a thousand times better than anything he’d imagined.

His feet started running before his mouth even moved. Zoro ran at him too.

“ZO- _RO_!” he exclaimed.

He lept at Zoro, pack and everything. His first mate caught him in his arms, stumbling a bit but still holding tight. He buried his face into Zoro’s shoulder, arms wrapping around him like snakes, and inhaled. Zoro smelled like dirt and booze and metal and old furniture and like he hasn’t showered in a long time--and like _home_.

He’s _home_.

“Are you crying? What the hell,” Zoro said, and the laugh he punctuated the statement with got Luffy laughing too. “What kind of Pirate King cries like a baby, huh?”

“What kind of world’s greatest swordsman doesn’t shower?” he snapped. “You’re _stinky_ , Zoro!”

Not his best comeback. But Zoro’s face didn’t have enough of him on it. That was more important. His hands cupped Zoro’s cheeks as he peppered them with kisses. Zoro’s arms were so strong and yet so gentle. He pressed their foreheads together. How could he have almost forgotten how good it felt to be there with him?

“You’re not allowed to go anywhere ever again,” he whispered.

“That an order, captain?” Zoro replied.

Luffy stared him dead in the eye. “Yes.”

The Pirate King can’t be the Pirate King without the world’s greatest swordsman. Luffy can’t be Luffy without Zoro to be Zoro.

“ _I've sailed the wide oceans four decades or more_ ,” he sang softly, finally sounding more in-tune with the music. “ _And ofttimes I've wondered what I do it for_ \--”

“ _I don't know the answer, it's pleasure and pain. With life to live over, I'd do it again_ …”

“Shishishi! I really like your voice, Zoro.”

Franky called to them from the deck of the Sunny, and Zoro responded in turn by hauling Luffy away. Not that he cared, if it allowed him to rest on Zoro’s shoulder for a bit longer and remember how well they fit together like that.

 

* * *

 

“ _Me name's Monkey Luffy, a pirate am I! On a two-masted brig sloop from Dawn Isle_ …”

He stepped along the railing, his sandals kicked off into a pile on the deck of the Sunny. It was a calm night, the winds quiet and most of the crew sleeping. Sleeping was still hard for him. It was never not hard. But someone had to take night shift, so it wasn’t so bad. Though, he did tend to get bored of fishing and “quiet” activities relatively fast.

Which left him trying to find new and interesting ways to pass the time. Tonight he’d been experimenting with changing the lyrics of his usual tune.

“ _I've been the world over, north, south, east, and west, but the middle of nowhere's where I like it best_ …” He tapped out the beat of the song with his heels, making a wet sticky sound with his sweaty feet. “ _Where it's wave over wave, sea over bow. I'm as happy a man as the sea will allow! There's no other life for a pirate like me, but to sail the salt sea, boys, sail the sea_ \--”

“Don’t you ever get tired of that song?”

He paused mid step to turn toward the voice. Zoro was standing there, rubbing at his eyes.

“Oh, hey Zoro,” he replied, settling down on the rail. “Can’t sleep?”

“Not really.” He leaned next to Luffy. “Bed’s cold.”

Luffy was quick to bump their shoulders together. The air was cold, too, so maybe together they could make it a little less cold. The night cast an eerie darkness over the ship, but the Sunny in itself was so comfortable that it was more soft than scary. He looked out at the sea and its choppy, short waves, then stared up at the stars around the ship’s mast. The sky above them was so different than the East Blue’s stars; so deep out to sea, so far from civilization that the stars were dusted with a pink and purple galaxy stripe. Zoro seemed focused on something else, though.

“Hey, Zoro?”

A hum in response.

“Doesn’t tonight kinda remind you of when it was just you and me in that dinghy?” he asked, plopping his head into the crook of Zoro’s neck. “It looked kinda like this. All bright with shiny stars and everything...”

“Did it? I don’t really remember,” Zoro admitted, tilting his head to rest it on top of Luffy’s. “I slept through a lot of it…”

“I couldn’t,” Luffy said. “I was too excited, shishishi.”

Zoro chuckled. “Aren’t you always?”

“Yeah, but I was extra excited then!”

An idea struck him. He lifted his head, suddenly completely alert, and hopped down onto the deck. Zoro watched him as he scampered out onto the turf covering the deck, but he ignored his first mate’s silent question as he searched for the perfect spot. It had to be _absolutely_ perfect. Once he found it, he flopped right down onto the turf.

“Zoro! Hey, hey, c’mere, Zoro!” He patted the turf. “Come lay down with me.”

Zoro raised his eyebrows. Luffy continued patting the spot, brimming with enthusiasm. Eventually, he relented, and strode over to the spot, settling down with a lot more finesse than his captain. His hair matched the color of the turf. Zoro had a turf head. He snickered to himself before taking his usual spot on Zoro’s pillow arm, turning his eye skyward, and staring at the swirls of colors over their heads.

_The work it is hard and the hours are long, my spirit is willing, my back it is strong..._

“...So, um,” Zoro began. “What are we doing?”

“We’re looking at space!” Luffy pointed at one particularly bright star. “Stars and stuff. I used to look at them a lot while you were sleeping back then. I don’t know what any of them are called, but I like looking at them anyhow.”

“Huh. There sure are a lot.”

“Mhm!”

The ocean sloshed against the side of the Sunny, the spray bringing a cool draft onto the ship. Luffy’s eyes were pinned to that galaxy in the sky, though. He couldn’t help but think of how much it reminded him of Red Line in name alone. One big line cutting the sky right in half...it was a bit like an ocean itself, wasn’t it?

_And when the work's over then whiskey we'll pour, we'll dance with each other upon some foreign shore..._

He traced it until he hit the horizon. Just kept going and going and going...

“What d’ya wanna do afterwards?” he asked Zoro.

“...After this?”

Luffy shook his head. “Y’know. When I’m Pirate King and you’re the world’s greatest swordsman,” he elaborated. “We’re gonna get there sooner or later, y’know? So what’s the first thing you want to do?”

A long, silent pause. Zoro’s eyebrows scrunched up like they did when Luffy asked him whether or not he thought plants had feelings.

“Dunno,” Zoro said. “Haven’t thought about it.” He shifted his view from the sky to Luffy. “What about you?”

_I'll sail the wide oceans for decades or more, and ofttimes I've been asked what I do it for?_

“No idea!”

That got a laugh out of Zoro.

“Then why bother thinking about it?” he said. “We’ll get there when we get there, right?”

Luffy nodded. But there was more to it. He did already know what he wanted to do after that. He turned to rest his cheek on Zoro’s chest. He traced the scar Mihawk had cut into him with a careful touch, even though it had long since healed over. It was kind of the flesh and blood pact that he’d never stand down again.

“It doesn’t really matter what I do, I think,” Luffy said. “So long as you’re with me.”

Zoro placed his hand over-top Luffy’s head, slipped off the hat, and ruffled his hair. His hands were so calloused and tough. He reached out to take the other hand, to rub circles into it with his thumbs. The skin was firm to the touch.

“ _I left my mate lonely for a whole two years_ ,” he sang, tracing the folds in Zoro’s palm. “ _He made me a home and chased away all my fears_ …”

A snort from Zoro. Of course he thought it was dumb.

“-- _But he'd never come out to bid farewell to me_ ,” Luffy continued on, ignoring Zoro’s quiet criticism of his awesome lyrics. “ _‘Cuz his place is by my side out on the salt sea..._ ”

With that, he rolled on top of Zoro’s chest and folded his arms over it. Zoro focused on him with his one half-lidded eye. Those battle-worn fingertips brushed the side of his cheek, pushing back some stray hair, and Luffy took advantage of the touch to rest his head in that hand. How could someone be so scared of Zoro, he wondered, when this so-called monster made him feel _this_ safe?

Maybe he didn’t want a wife or a relationship or an anything--but he did want Zoro. He knew that much. Zoro was special. So, so special.

“... _Wave over wave, sea over bow_ ,” Zoro sang softly. “ _I'm as happy a man as the sea will allow_ …”

“ _There's no other life for a pirate like me_ ,” Luffy mumbled, eyes closing.

“ _But to sail the sea with you, sail the sea_ …”


	2. Fiddler's Green | Brook

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The captain and the musician have a bit of a heart to heart.
> 
> Just a note--If you see any songs present in these drabbles, they're actual songs! Here's [a link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bMCrLkCUds) to the title song of this chapter.

Zoro was training. Nami, Robin, and Sanji had gone out in the Mini Merry for supplies. Chopper was removing a plant that had decided to grow in Usopp’s nose (or that’s what it sounded like, at least). Franky was hammering away at some amazing super modification deep in the hull of the Sunny that nobody else was allowed to see yet.

And Luffy? Luffy was bored stiff and feeling a bit sore that Sanji and Nami had refused to let him come along. Why did everyone think he was gonna cause trouble?

He’d been in the boy’s room tossing around a bean bag when he’d heard music from outside. Brook was pacing around on the deck, improvising some dance moves and playing random strings of notes, all the while muttering to himself with the occasional laugh.

Entertainment spotted.

“Hey, hey!” Luffy called out to him, leaping down the stairs. “Can you play me something new, Brook?”

“Something new?” Brook tapped his bony chin. “Hmhmhm. Well, I’m afraid it’ll take me a while to come up with a brand new song. I’m not even finished with the one I’m working on now.”

“No no no,” Luffy said, shaking his head. “I mean like--something I haven’t heard before! Y’know, from the old times you lived in. I’ll bet there’s all kinds of music you know that everyone’s forgotten about now!”

Brook huffed and put his hands on his hip bones.

“Exactly how old do you think I am, huh?” he replied. “Just because I’m all bones doesn’t mean I’m a fossil! Yohoho!”

“But you know some songs I don’t, right?” Luffy pressed, grinning ear to ear.

“Perhaps! Let’s see…” Brook clacked his teeth together. “Leaving of Loguetown?”

“Nope. I’ve heard it.”

“Dressrosa Ladies?”

“I know that one, too!”

“Rolling Home?”

“Bah!” Luffy fell over onto the turf deck, stretching out spread eagle. “I know all of these!”

Brook tapped his foot and tilted his head back and forth. It seemed he was frustrated too, though it was hard to tell. Luffy always had a difficult time being able to tell what he was feeling without a face.

“Oh dear oh dear...” Brook muttered. “I’m going to have to think on this some more, then. What shanties have been gathering dust in the back of my head, then…?”

He settled down on the deck by the foremast, guitar in his lap. Luffy made snowless angels in the grass as the first few lines of Dressrosa Ladies played through his head. He’d heard it so many times-- _too_ many times at this point--that he was desperate for something new to hum. Zoro was going to chew him out if all he did was sing Wave Over Wave again.

Then, he recalled a faint melody from a long time ago. The words were long lost to him, but he still remembered the tune a little. He whistled out a couple of notes, but struggled with what came next. Hmm...

Oh!

Luffy jumped to his feet.

“Hey! I’ve got an idea!” Brook looked toward him. “Could you help me figure out what this song I’m thinking of is? I don’t remember what it’s called, but--it was this one song I used to sing with Ace and Sabo all the time!”

“Yoho! Well, I can certainly try,” Brook said with a nod. “What does it sound like?”

“Uhhh...Well, it kinda goes like…Out from mania--hmmm-hmm-hm--I’s wrist-watching threw the night,” he slowly sang out, trying to match the beat in his head. It was patchy and weird. “Many almondy hearts--something something something--mornin’s light--” He clicked his tongue. “I remember there were spikes. Does that help?”

Brook’s dead-eyed stare conveyed no emotion. But then he hummed as though it did ring a bell. He mimicked the notes that Luffy had shared on his guitar a few times, trying to jog his memory. After a few tries, he snapped his fingers.

“Oho! I know this one! Rising of the Moon!” he said. “That’s an obscure one, that is. I wonder where you boys picked it up…”

Sure enough, Brook strummed out the beginning of the song that Luffy knew oh so well from those childhood days of running around with spiky sticks. He bobbed along with the beat, muttering the lyrics he remembered.

“Ace always told me I was really bad at singing it. I kept forgetting what the words were and whatever. He always made fun of me!” he said. “You can teach me how to sing it, right?”

“Of course! Captain’s orders, yohoho!”

“Shishishi! Just wait til I show Ace how well I’ve--I’ve--”

Ah.

His shoulders drooped. Brook paused in playing.

That’s right. Ace wasn’t...there anymore, was he. Ace was gone.

Slowly, he came to rest on the deck of the Sunny, legs folding into a pretzel shape. He hunched over, arms folded, and just stared out to sea. There was a flock of birds far away, like little bits of paper blowing around. Their cawing was barely audible.

“...My condolences, Luffy,” Brook said.

Luffy meekly nodded. His knuckles trailed over the polished wood of the rail beside him. He could see that memory so fresh in his mind; of him and Ace and Sabo, all camped out around a small fire they’d made of brush, newspaper, and rotten logs. Of them singing in unison and Luffy mumbling the words he couldn’t figure out. Of Ace greeting him in Alabasta. Ace fighting with him in Marineford, back-to-back...

The feeling of Ace’s body, heavy and lifeless in his arms, as his brother slipped away.

It’d been two years, hadn’t it? Two years...and he still couldn’t get his mind around it. He reached out to the sea birds and clenched his fist around them, opened it to see them again, then closed it once more.

“I keep...thinking,” he whispered. “That it’s like Sabo, where--where he’s off traveling somewhere. Maybe with that pineapple-head guy or with Shanks or something. Like he was just sleeping back there after the fight--’cuz he fell asleep sometimes--or that everything was a bad dream. He wasn’t... _really_ gone...”

He gestured vaguely out to sea.

“And I could tell him about it and he’d tell me I was being dumb again,” he said. Then, he switched over to a mock-imitation of Ace’s voice, “ _What are you talking about, huh? Do I look dead to you? You’ve been eating too much candy before bed!_ ”

He laughed. It was so easy to imagine Ace saying that, like it could and would happen eventually.

But it wasn’t going to.

There were so many things that plain and simple wouldn’t be happening. All the stories he couldn’t tell Ace, all the things he couldn’t show him--the friends, allies, the new members of his crew--there was so much that Ace was never going to be there with him for. No matter how much he wanted it.

His insides felt hollow.

“...Hey Brook?”

“Yes?”

“Is it...always gonna be like this?”

It was a rare moment of complete pensive silence from his musician--save for the dull clicking of his joints as he rested against the ship’s mast. He tapped the body of the guitar.

“I watched my captain disappear and my crew die before me,” he started. “Then when I came back from the dead, I saw their decaying corpses at my feet. Logically, I knew they were gone.

“Still, there were so many times I’d be looking around to find them. I’d think of a joke, or a memory, a little tune they’d love, or I’d see something that reminded me of them. For a moment I’d believe that they still existed right outside my field of vision--”

He reached out with one bony hand like he wanted to tap someone on the shoulder. But his fingers merely swiped through the empty air.

“Then I’d remember they were gone. That I was alone. Always alone.”

His empty eye sockets focused on his hand, each bleached, bony finger flexing.

“I find myself seeing them in the world around me. The adventures our crew goes on--I cannot help but wonder, how might they have reacted to the things we’ve seen? What they could have said, what we might’ve done together… There are times when I’ll spot a familiar haircut in the crowd and I’ll find myself wanting to call out the name of a long-dead man.”

He shook his head, then turned toward Luffy. Even without his facial features, Luffy could still tell that he was smiling sadly.

“Yohoho… That’s a rather somber answer, isn’t it? I apologize.”

Luffy shook his head. “Nah, it’s okay,” he said. “It actually made me feel a little better.”

A wave crashed against the hull. The sea birds became louder as they approached the Sunny, cawing and cawing. There was a little sliver of some island way, way away. Too small to see whether there were forests or mountains or cities or animals or people. Just a big chunk of something he couldn’t make sense of.

“You remind me a lot of Captain Yorki, you know,” Brook said.

“Yeah?”

“Mm-hm, oh, he was a very pleasant man and a good friend of mine. Always so cheerful and positive. It was his dream to see the children of the world smile, you know.” A few off-beat notes came from Brook’s guitar as he tuned it. “Perhaps he’s off somewhere on Fiddler’s Green seeing out that dream of his.”

He strummed the guitar, then began to pluck out the notes of a song that Luffy hadn’t heard before. He turned around to watch Brook play, interest now piqued.

“ _As I went by the dockside one evening so fair_ ,” Brook sang softly. “ _To view the still water and take the salt air, I heard an old fisherman singing this song--Oh, take me away, boys, my time is not long_ …”  
  
_Wrap me up in me oilskin and jumper. No more on the docks I'll be seen. Just tell me old shipmates I'm taking a trip, mates. And I'll see you someday on Fiddler's Green_ …”

“Fiddler’s Green?” Luffy parroted. He looked back out at the chunky island in the distance. “Where’s that? Is it somewhere in New World?”

“Oh, it’s sort of like heaven. The great beyond, the afterlife--things like that. Nowhere that any of us can get to as we are now,” Brook clarified, continuing to strum out the baseline of the shanty. “Or perhaps we can. What does a skeleton like me know? I don’t even have a brain! Yohoho!”

He continued on.  
  
“ _Now Fiddler's Green is a place I've heard tell, where fishermen go when they don't go to Hell. There the skies are all clear and the dolphins do play, and the warm coast of Green Bit is not so far away_ …”

 _Wrap me up in me oilskin and jumper. No more on the docks I'll be seen. Just tell me old shipmates I'm taking a trip, mates. And I'll see you someday on Fiddler's Green_ …”

This wasn’t Brook’s usual way of singing. He was always so positive and cheerful. This was so slow and gentle...and sad. The story of Brook’s final moments with his crew slipped into Luffy’s mind; how they’d sung and he’d played, and he’d kept playing until he died alongside them.

Luffy shuffled over to rest on the mast beside him, watching him play in silence.  
  
“ _The sky’s always clear and there's never a gale, and the fish jump on board with a swish in their tail. You can lie at your leisure, completely carefree, and there's bottles of rum growing from every tree_ …”

For a moment, he considered that Ace was somewhere out there on some sky island in the clouds. There were adventures to have, things to eat, and maybe even the people they’d said goodbye to. He could sail through the clouds with Whitebeard. Or maybe even meet with Brook’s lost crew and listen to their rendition of Bink’s Sake in person.

It made him smile.

“Y’know,” Luffy said. “Maybe Yorki and Ace found each other, wherever they’re at.” He grinned at Brook. “They could be good friends, and they could be talking about us right now!”

“Perhaps! Captain Yorki was always so good at making friends wherever he went.” Brook continued playing a few notes. “One can only hope they’ve found somewhere better to be than here, hm?”

Luffy hummed. His eyes were focused on the sea again, this time at the clouds above the nameless chunky island. So wispy and fluffy, like cotton candy or smoke. Where there was smoke, there was fire. Would Fiddler’s Green let Ace have his Devil Fruit powers? He put the imaginary sky island into the large cloud, pretending that it was hiding it just out of view…

“ _I don't need a harp or a halo, not me. Just give me a breeze and a stiff rolling sea. And I'll play me old squeeze box as we sail along, when the wind in the rigging will sing me this song_ \--”

Ace could be there. Yet even if he was, it didn’t matter. He wasn’t here. He couldn’t be here ever again. Luffy’s lips trembled and he sniffed.

“...I miss Ace so bad,” he croaked.

“Mm. That never really changes...” Brook muttered. “I’m always going to miss Yorki and the crew, I think. But we’ll see them all again someday, I think.”

That was true. Maybe they could find that island someday. Maybe he could bring all the stories he wanted to share there with him. Or maybe it was just the sad part of him talking again. He wiped at his eyes. It was nice to think about, at least.

The chorus came around again, and this time he knew the lyrics.

“ _Wrap me up in me oilskin and jumper! No more on the docks I'll be seen_ ,” Luffy sang along with him, catching Brook off guard (and earning him a, “Yohoho!”). “ _Just tell me old shipmates I'm taking a trip, mates. And I'll see you someday on Fiddler's Green_ …”


	3. Leaving of Loguetown | Shanks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before the captain was a captain, there was someone else who showed him the way.
> 
> (The song used in this chapter: [Leaving of Liverpool](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjiIFHU1quo))

Something just felt right about today.

Luffy didn’t know what it was, but he just felt like he had to wake up early. Usually he slept in well until noon, but today? Today he was up in the early hours of the morning. He rolled out of bed, pulled on some fresh clothes, and breezed right out the door.

Even though the sun was still rising, the town was already bustling, the street vendors placing their crates of goods out in stands in the open air market. It was always so strange to see everyone up so early. Especially when everyone always complained about the lack of sleep and being tired and stuff. If people owned their own shops and things, why not just sleep in until they felt like getting up? Adults were so weird.

He whistled a little off-beat tune he’d heard from Grandpa once as he weaved through the aisles. Fish and breads and jams and--oh! He paused when he caught sight of a familiar woman in a bandanna. And Makino!

“Hiya, Makino!”

Makino looked down from the display of limes and waved to Luffy as he ran up to her.

“Oh, you’re up rather early, aren’t you?” she asked, placing a few limes into the basket on her arm. “What’s got you all excited, huh?”

“I dunno. It just felt right.”

“Hahaha, I understand.” Makino walked along the stand, sampling the fruits. “It’s a lovely day, isn’t it? So quiet and the weather’s lovely. It’s almost a shame I’ll be working.”

The owner of the stand sliced some strange, foreign fruit. Luffy sniffed the air. It was sweet and fresh smelling. Maybe a little lemony, too. But a lot of things smelled lemony. He looked at the crate of lemons in front of him before he followed after Makino. He tugged down her basket to peek into it; limes, lemons, apples, some bread…

“Hey, Makino?” he spoke up. “Is there any meat at this stand? I’m hungry.”

“No, Luffy. It’s a fruit vendor.”

He huffed. “What kinda person just sells _fruit_ …”

Nevertheless, there was no meat at the stand, much to his dismay. The vendor did give him an orange, though. Which was okay. He’d still eat it, but he wouldn’t enjoy it.

As Makino continued to contemplate different kinds of fuzzy fruits, Luffy picked at the skin of the orange, groaning in frustration as he merely punched a bunch of holes in it and coated his hands in sticky, orange-y juice. Adults made this look so easy…

He dropped the orange peel on the ground and shoved a couple orange slices into his mouth. At another stand, a few adults had gathered to stare out at the harbor. They were murmuring to each other as though they’d seen a ghost. Luffy tilted his head back and forth before he wandered over to them. He peeked through the bars of the rail along the water--

Oh! It was a ship! And not one that he recognized.

A grand ship was pulling into the tiny harbor of Foosha Village. Luffy was about to ask the adults why they looked so nervous when he noticed. A black flag billowed proudly in the breeze atop the mast of the foreign vessel.

“Pirates!!” Luffy shouted, pointing urgently to the ship docking in the harbor and spooking the people around him. “Makino!! There’s pirates!”

“Eh?” Makino looked up, a fresh peach in her hand, and followed his finger to the ship. She jolted. “Oh, no...So much for today being quiet.”

Luffy’s eyes were wide as he stared at the ship; it was so, so big with a sort-of dragon-thingy for a figure head and not one, not two--but _four_ whole masts?! All the pirate ships he’d seen in the area before were tiny little things, but this one towered over all of the fishing boats. Even his grandpa’s boat would pale in comparison to--His train of thought was crashed as Makino seized his shoulders, turned him away, and marched off with him.

“--Hey! Quit pushin’! What’s the big idea, Makino?!” he snapped, trying to look back toward the ship. “I was gonna join them!”

“Luffy,” Makino said, sternly but gently. “We don’t know those people. They could be very dangerous.”

“I can take ‘em,” Luffy assured her.

“You’re seven.”

“And a _half_!”

He tried to dig his heels into the pavement, but couldn’t stop Makino from guiding him away into Partys Bar. Once inside, Makino shut the door behind them and sighed. Luffy pouted at her, then promptly ran off to the nearest window. He could only just barely reach it, having to stand on tiptoes to look out of it. The gangplank had been lowered and several men were descending, stretching their arms and chattering among themselves. He groaned loudly.

The pirates were already disembarking and here he was, trapped in this stinky bar with Makino!

“I want to keep both of us safe,” Makino told him as she walked behind the bar, basket of citrus fruit in hand. “Pirates are unruly and unpredictable--they might hurt you, or kidnap you. They could do the same to me, too.”

Luffy was about to respond that no, he was gonna beat them up if they did anything, but then he stopped. That’s right! Makino yelled sometimes, but she didn’t fight anyone. What if she couldn’t? He looked between her and the pirates in the bay. He frowned determinedly and punched his balled up fist into his other hand.

No way were they gonna hurt Makino! Not while he was here with her!

“Don’t worry!” he said, climbing up onto a chair. “I’ll protect you!”

Makino offered him a fond smile. “That’s sweet of you, but _please_ stay out of trouble, Luffy.”

“I’m not gonna start nothing, but if they start something, I’m not making no promises!”

He put his hands on his hips and looked around. Maybe they could build some secret hiding spots where he could ambush those pirates out of the tables and chairs. And Makino probably had some tablecloths...

Hm. He could use a stick.

Quickly, he leapt from the chair and ran across the floor to the closet where Makino kept all the cleaning stuff. He pushed aside the brooms and cleaners and sprays on the hunt for that good stick he’d hidden in there the other day. Where’d he put it?

“This what you’re looking for?”

He poked his head out of the closet. Makino was holding out his sharpened branch that he’d carved his name into (though she’d told him he spelled it wrong later). He grinned and shoved his way out of the closet. A couple broomsticks clattered against the floor.

“Thanks, Makino!” He grabbed the stick from her and quickly ran off to hide under a table. “I’m gonna surprise the pirates!”

He crouched down and watched the door. And waited.

And waited.

And waite--

The door swung open. A red-haired man in a straw hat stepped inside, whistling a tune that sounded familiar to Luffy, but that he couldn’t quite place. As the man stepped just a tad too close to his hideaway, he leapt from the shadows. He raised the stick over his head to smack the pirate--only to be caught in midair and with one hand, too.

“Whoahoho--hang on there, kid,” the man said. “You’re gonna poke someone’s eye out with that!”

“Yeah! I’m gonna get both of yours!”

The red-haired man looked at him and laughed as though his threat was hilarious. Luffy lost his grip on the stick and landed back on the floor. The man spun the weapon around in his fingers as though it was a toy. Luffy scowled at him. He blinked, set the stick on a nearby table, then squatted down to look Luffy in the eye.

“Why’re you so eager to fight a guy you’ve only just met, huh?” he asked, grinning a lopsided smile. “Your bones itching for a scuffle?”

“Mm- _hm_!” Luffy nodded, eyes focused on the pirate man. “I’m gonna protect Makino from all the bad people ‘cuz she doesn’t fight!”

The answer seemed to catch the man off guard until the clinking of glasses caught his attention. He looked up. Luffy followed his gaze to see Makino fiddling around with the supplies behind the counter. She always did that when she was nervous.

The man pointed to Makino. “She your girlfriend?”

“Yeah! She’s my friend and she’s a girl!” Luffy responded immediately. “And if you’re mean to her, I’m gonna hit you!”

“Dahahaha--I like you, kid.”

The red-haired man ruffled his hair, making Luffy growl, and then rose to his feet. He strolled over to the bar counter and took a seat casually, a friendly smile aimed at Makino. He gestured toward the taps with his chin. Luffy narrowed his eyes and picked up the stick again, pointed end facing up.

“I’ll take whatever’s the house specialty,” he said casually. “Crew’s still docking, but they’ll probably be interested in the same-- _ow_!”

He looked down. Luffy stared at him, eyes burning a hole into his side as he jabbed the pointy stick into the meat of the man’s thigh. With a roll of his eyes, the stick was once again pulled away from him. Luffy yelped and reached for it, but this time the man tossed it across the room.

“Honestly…” he said, exasperated. “Nobody’s here to fight, Anchor. I just want a drink like any old customer, you feel?”

“So you’re not gonna hurt Makino?”

“No, I’m not.”

Luffy took a moment to process this. He looked from the man to Makino, then back again. He nodded and then took a seat in the chair beside the strange man. Makino seemed to deflate a little, shoulders sagging, as the tension left the room. She set on pouring out a drink, which Luffy managed to identify as sake, and then set it on the counter.

“So, strawhat,” she began, eyeing the man as he sipped on his drink. “What brings you to our sleepy little village if you aren’t here to loot and plunder?”

“That’s not _all_ pirates are,” he replied, swirling his drink. “Sure, there’s gold and adventuring--but what _really_ gets me is the journey between that. Life’s too short to just waste it all on shiny stuff, you know?”

“You’re weird,” Luffy stated bluntly.

“Nah, I’m Shanks,” the man said, introducing himself with a toothy smile. He extended his other hand to Luffy, who eyed it with confusion. “What about you, Anchor?”

“I’m not Anchor, I’m Luffy!” Luffy announced, ignoring the hand.

“Hm.” Shanks scratched his chin. “That’s too bad, I like the name Anchor better.”

“No!! My name’s _not_ Anchor!”

He shoved Shanks’ shoulder as the other laughed. _Again_! Why did he think everything was so funny!

Soon, just as Shanks had said, the rest of the crew showed up at the bar. They appeared all at once, loudly talking among themselves about some ship stuff that Luffy didn’t understand. The bar looked so much smaller with them in it. There was a big fat guy with goggles, and a guy with a monkey, and a guy with dreadlocks--Luffy grinned. Real pirates! Right here with him!

Shanks’ sake glass hit the counter and he let out a contented, “Ahhh.” Luffy pressed his lips together in a fine line.

Here he was face-to-face with an entire crew of pirates, and nothing exciting was even happening! All this guy wanted to do was drink and talk to Makino about boring old people things. Where was the action? The fights? The treasure? The stories about monsters? He swung his feet back and forth on the bar stool.

This was boring!

“Ugh!” he grumbled, laying his head down on the counter. Shanks looked at him. “I got all excited like something really cool was gonna happen! But all you people wanna do is drink and talk like regular old boring adults.”

“That’s what we wanna do, lil’ man,” he replied with a smirk.

“Don’t you ever do anything _else_?”

“I sing sometimes. We’ve even got a musician on our ship.”

“Ehhhhh?” Luffy stuck out his tongue. “What kinda pirate sings all day?”

“What kinda pirate _doesn’t_ sing all day?” Shanks countered, much to Luffy’s dismay. He tapped his empty glass on the countertop. “When you’re happy, when you’re sad, when you really just gotta move your feet...ever get like that, Anchor?”

Luffy meditated on the question, folding his arms and looking down.

“...Yeah. I guess so,” he muttered.

“Fights, plunder, and treasure come and go,” Shanks continued. “What’re you gonna have when that’s not around, huh?” Luffy furrowed his eyebrows. He didn’t have an answer. “Sometimes it’s just you and your crew, and that will to keep going’s gotta come from you. So a pirate’s always gotta sing!”

Shanks turned toward the rest of the crew, eyes wide open as he scanned each table. The group was rowdy and they didn’t seem to notice him right away. But the moment he thumped on the table and twirled his fingers, the noise dipped down to a low murmur. The men looked at Shanks expectantly. Shanks cleared his throat. A man in the corner pulled a guitar from his back and strummed a few notes.

“ _Fare thee weeeell to Loguetown’s ma-ri-naaaa!_ ” Shanks sang. “ _Polestar Islandssss, fareeee thee welllll!_ ”

He paused to sip on his drink.

“ _I am bound for Sa-bao-da-ay--_ ” He looked back to Luffy and poked him on the nose. “ _It's a place that I knooow right well!_ ”

“ _So faaare thee well, my oooown true love!_ ” As if on cue, the other pirates joined in, singing along as though they’d practiced it thousands of times for this very moment. " _When I return, united we will beeee!_ ” 

“ _It's not the leeeaving of Loguetown that grieeeeeves me,_ ” they all sang together. “ _But my darling when I thiiiink of thee!_ ”

The bunch laughed, banging on the tables, hooting and hollering merrily. Luffy felt himself grinning. Huh. There was something about this group of pirates that made them seem...different to the way his grandpa had depicted them. Maybe pirates weren’t just action and adventure, but maybe that was okay.

“Hey! Shanks!” he called out.

“Hm? What?”

Luffy stood up on his stool, which wobbled a little under him. Makino gestured for him to sit down immediately.

“I wanna join your crew!” he bellowed.

The entire crew burst into uproarious laughter again.

 

* * *

 

So, Shanks wasn’t going to let him on his crew. That was okay. He’d change his mind when he realized how good Luffy would be as a crewmate. There were as lot of things he could do. Like fighting and eating and climbing trees and sleeping really good! And jumping on things. He was really good at that.

“Did you guys come from Grand Line?” Luffy asked as he hopped along Foosha Village’s rocky fence separating it from the ocean.

“Sure did.”

“Huh! Whatcha doin’ out here then?” He paused to hop across a couple awkwardly placed rocks. “Doesn’t every pirate wanna find the One Piece?”

“Eh, I kinda wanted a break from ol’ Grand Line,” Shanks replied. “Past couple years have been real hectic for us. I think we need some good R&R before we tackle it again.”

“Arn’Ar?” Luffy muttered.

Shanks laughed. “Rest and relaxation. Chilling out. Taking it easy.”

“That’s boring. Don’tcha wanna do stuff?”

“Isn’t that doing stuff?”

Luffy paused on a particularly large boulder to think about what counted as “doing stuff” and what didn’t. He rubbed his chin. Did laying around like a cat all day count as doing stuff? If it did then it wasn’t very good stuff.

“Captain.” A long-haired man with an intense face approached them. “The supplies have been restocked. If we do a quick head count we can head out for Loguetown in about twenty minutes…”

“Geez. No time wasted with you, huh, Benn…” Shanks smirked. “Alright, gimme a few.”

Luffy watched the two adults for a moment, confused about what they were saying. Then, it hit him. His face fell.

“You’re leaving.”

Both Shanks and Benn looked at him. He furrowed his eyebrows together. Why? Why did everyone he liked always end up leaving?

“Well, I mean, yeah--” Shanks said, scratching his hair under his hat. “We’re pirates, buddy. We’re always on the move.”

“ _No_!” Luffy launched at Shanks and clamped his tiny hands onto the man’s hairy right leg, making the other yelp in surprise. “No, no, no, no, _no_ ! You _just_ got here! You can’t leave! You can’t, you can’t, you _can’t_ \--!”

“Hey, get off kid--!” Benn warned.

He buried his face in the side of Shanks’ leg. As if he was going to let go of his only chance to go on a cool adventure! How could Shanks show up and act so cool and then just leave without him?! He didn’t even have time to get stronger! He sniffled and clenched his leg until his knuckles went white. Benn approached them and Luffy glared up at him.

“Hold on, Benn,” Shanks said, holding out a hand to stop him. He halted in place. Then, Shanks looked down at him with a smile. “Hey, hold on, Anchor. It’s not a forever goodbye. Just a goodbye for now.”

“What’s the difference,” Luffy croaked.

“Difference is that we’re definitely going to see each other again,” Shanks replied, reaching down to pet his hair. Luffy shrank under the touch. He didn’t want comfort from the person leaving him so easily!

“I kinda like this island,” he continued. “This place is just my style. I think I’ll come back here sometime while we’re still in the area.”

Luffy sniffed and then looked up. They were going to stay nearby? He processed this with a pout. Shanks would still be leaving, and he could just be saying things like adults always did. His grandpa said he’d be right back and then he’d disappear for so long…

“How long?” he said.

“Ahhh…” Shanks rubbed his chin. “Maybe a couple weeks? Not sure. There’s a couple places I want to see.”

“Okay. A couple weeks.” Luffy stared him down with his best serious adult face. “Then you gotta come back here or I’m gonna be mad.”

“Gotcha.”

Luffy extended the pinky finger of his right hand. “Pinky swear it!”

Shanks extended his own pinky finger and wrapped it around Luffy’s in an unbreakable promise. Now he was guaranteed to come back, no matter what! Benn rolled his eyes. As Luffy went to pull away, Shanks grabbed him by the hand.

“ _So faaaare thee well! My oooown true love!_ ” Shanks swung Luffy’s arm back and forth with his. “ _When I return, united we will beee!_ ” 

Though he was sniveling a moment before, Luffy laughed as Shanks effortlessly lifted him off the ground with one hand. When his feet hit the dirt again, he gripped Shanks’ hand and pulled him forward toward the harbor. The sooner he got going, the sooner he came back, right? Shanks seemed to take the hint and started skipping along with him.

“ _It's not the leeeeaving for Loguetown that grieves me_ ,” Shanks sang, “ _But my darling when I think of thee!_ ”

“That’s so mushy and gross!” Luffy said, sticking his tongue out.

“Dahaha--Well, that’s the point!” Shanks said. “You’ll find someone you wanna sing it about someday, too, and you’ll understand that!”

Luffy huffed as they skipped along. Yuck! As if! That was on the list of things adults did that he’d never, ever understand. Right up there with waking up really early, brussel sprouts, and drinking coffee. Why did adults do so many weird things?

 

* * *

 

Shanks left, and returned a couple weeks later, just like he’d promised.

In fact, he did that a lot; say he’d come back, leave, and then really come back. He was starting to make Grandpa look a whole lot more shady. If a pirate could go and do pirate things and still come back, then how come Grandpa always said he was “too busy” for him?

The more Shanks and his crew came back, the more people seemed to like them. Which was good, because Luffy liked them a lot. The things he liked and the things other people liked didn’t often intersect; Makino said dirt and bugs were gross and Woopslap told him that climbing trees to get to honey bee nests was dangerous, but both of them seemed to at least tolerate Shanks. Or well, Makino did at least. Her and a bunch of people who weren’t Woopslap.

There was one downside, though; people liked Shanks. Which meant less Shanks for him and more Shanks for other people.

And that? That wasn’t good at all.

Luffy watched from afar as Shanks and his crew were bombarded by a bunch of girls from the village, by excited men and older kids who were chasing that same dream as Luffy. He’d already been pushed back for not being tall enough or strong enough to squeeze in past everyone else. There were so many people who thought he was cool too. And they were all stronger and taller and--

Being little was dumb!

He stood on the hill and pried out some rocks stuck in the grassy dirt. Eventually, the crowd broke up. _Eventually_ Shanks found him and sat down beside him. Shanks thought he was too little too. Too little to be a pirate. Too little, too little. Luffy scowled.

“I’m mad.”

Shanks didn’t reply. He was busy staring off into the distance at Makino. Luffy pouted up at him and crossed his arms harder, staring with all the energy he could muster. Eventually Shanks glanced down and was promptly bewildered by Luffy’s expression.

“Wha--”

“You’re supposed to ask _why_ I’m mad,” Luffy stated flatly.

“Oh.” Shanks blinked, then tilted his head a bit. “What’s got you upset, Anchor?”

“I’m mad ‘cuz I’m little.”

“...Yeah?”

“And I hate being little! I HATE it!!” Luffy exclaimed, stomping his sandals into the dirt. “Everyone and everything is bigger than me and just ‘cuz they’re bigger they think they’re better! It’s dumb!! I wanna be ten feet tall when I grow up!”

“Then how are you gonna get into Partys Bar, huh?” Shanks said with amusement.

Luffy sniffled, rubbed his eyes, and scowled at him. He’d have to crawl into that bar cause the door wasn’t big enough for a ten foot person. And Makino didn’t have big chairs for a ten foot tall person either. Not that he wanted to admit that. He merely pouted at Shanks and then looked away with a huff.

“Hey, hey. C’mon.” Shanks reached over and ruffled his hair. “Being little’s not so bad.”

“No. It’s _terrible_ ,” Luffy muttered, hiding his face in his knees.

“Well,” Shanks began, making a vague gesture with his other hand. “There are a lot of people taller than I am, but I don’t let it bother me. I make do with what I’ve got.”

Luffy looked up again. “...Make do?”

“Yeah! It’s not how big you are that matters.” Shanks tapped his straw hat. “It’s what you’ve got in here--” He poked Luffy square in the chest, making the other glance down at his finger. “--And in _here_ that matter in the grand scheme of things.”

Luffy tilted his head to the side.

“Think of it this way--uh--” Shanks hummed and furrowed his eyebrows. “If you’re gonna catch a bear, how would you do it?”

“Why would I wanna do that?” Luffy asked bluntly. “Bears are stinky.”

“Dahaha--Just work with me here, okay, Anchor?” Shanks said with a grin. “You’re too little to fight it all by yourself, right?” Luffy nodded slowly. “So what you could do is figure out another way to catch the bear. Like a trap, or a--”

“Oh!” Luffy perked up, eyes sparkling. “I could get a bunch of people to beat up the bear with me!”

Shanks opened his mouth, then closed it.

“Sure, that works too,” he said. “Strength in numbers--that’s using your head and your heart.” He tapped his forehead. Luffy copied the gesture with a giggle. “Then it doesn’t matter if you’re little, doesn’t? You’ve outsmarted the bear.”

“Huh.” Luffy tilted his head back and forth. “Guess not.”

He went quiet for a moment and simply stared out at the bustling harbor from the grassy hilltop. Some crewmen from Shanks’ ship were loading up a bunch of rum barrels onto a rolling cart. Another was talking to Makino, who had a clipboard in her hand. And Shanks...ew, he was making that weird gooey-eyed face at her again...

“What if I wanna fight the bear myself, though?” he asked.

“--What the?” Shanks’ attention snapped away from Makino, eyebrows raising. “You seriously wanna go around picking fights with a bunch of bears, kid? You got some kind of death wish, Anchor?”

“Heck no!” Luffy jumped to his feet, fists pumping into the air. “I’m gonna get super tough and then it’ll be bear stew every night!”

Shanks responded with a loud chain of laughter and clutched at his stomach, which in turn got Luffy laughing and rolling around in the grass as well. His clothes were gonna get grass stains all over them, but it was worth it. So worth it. After taking a moment to calm down, Luffy laid on his back and looked at Shanks.

“...So if being little doesn’t matter...can I join your pirate crew?” Luffy asked, smirking.

Shanks sighed. “You’re still on that…?”

“Yeah!” Luffy frowned. “I wanna be a pirate, just like you guys!”

“You’ve got spunk, I’ll give you that much, kid,” Shanks said. He laid back on the grass next to Luffy and placed his hat on his chest. “But why do you wanna hang around a bunch of old people like us? Oughta get yourself some people your own age, Anchor. Make yourself a lil’ crew of your own...”

“My own crew…” Luffy repeated. He looked up at the clouds.

His head pictured him and a bunch of weird-looking kids waving around a bunch of sticks on a huge boat like the one Shanks had. It seemed fun. Those kids were weird in all the right ways, too. He could be the captain, if he wanted! And then everyone would have to listen to him even though he was short!

“I guess I can do that when I’m bigger,” Luffy said. “But I wanna practice on your crew first!”

“Bah!” Shanks lightly bopped him with his hat. “You’re a stubborn one!”

“Shishishi! That’s ‘cuz I’m gonna be the best pirate ever!”

 

* * *

 

Pirates liked drinking, and dancing, and parties. Also meat, freedom, and a lot of other things. Luffy wondered why Grandpa never mentioned any of this when he talked about pirates, but Shanks sure seemed to know what being a pirate was like way better than a Marine. And nothing bad Grandpa had said could overshadow how great the Red-Haired Pirates were and how much fun being a pirate seemed like.

Every night, it felt like he and the crew were down at Partys Bar; drinking, singing, and having a good time. Luffy was allowed to stick around--so long as he didn’t touch the sake (which smelled awful, why would he?). It was like a dream come true, really.

“ _I have signed on a Marine clipper ship_ ,” Shanks sang as he danced some lopsided dance in the middle of the room. Some men in the back of the room were playing music along to the tune once again. “ _Davy Jones is her name! And Burgess is the Captain of her, and they say she's a--uh--floating...shame!_ ”

Lucky Roo laughed loudly. “Those aren’t the words, Cap’n!”

“Shh!” Shanks put a finger to his lips. “We got Anchor in here!”

As if to show his point, Shanks scooped Luffy up, making him shriek in surprise as he was whisked out of his chair. The crew laughed like that was funny for some reason. Luffy tried to struggle against the grip, but Shanks soon put him back on his feet.

“ _I have sailed with Burgess once before, and he’s a man I know right well!_ ” Shanks held up a finger as if he really did know this weirdly named person. He winked to Luffy. “ _If a man is a sailor, he can get along, and if nothin' he is sure in Hell!_ ”

As the chorus came around, the rest of the men in the room joined in.

“ _So fare thee well, my own true love! When I return, united we will be!_ ”

Shanks took Luffy by the hand and spun him around in a circle. Luffy felt dizzy, but he was laughing too hard to care. He couldn’t dance, but Shanks couldn’t dance either and that made it all the better.

“ _It's not the leaving of Loguetown that grieves me, but my darling when I think of thee!_ ”

The singing died down, changing to clapping to the music instead as they and a few other pirates stomped out a dance on the bar floor. Makino watched from the bar with a cheerful expression as she clapped along with them. Luffy felt his flip flops sliding off as he skipped around. Yet they only really slipped off when he was lifted again.

“Hey!!” Luffy shouted, giggling as Shanks captured and tossed him onto his shoulder, holding his legs. “Quit it!!”

“Geez, Captain. You’re going a little soft, huh?” one of the crewmen spoke up from the back of the room. “Weren’t you saying a few months back how you didn’t even like kids?”

“Pfft…” Shanks turned and held Luffy upside down. Luffy snickered loudly and wiggled his legs around, hands trying to fix his falling shirt back into place. “They’re not that bad. At least, this one ain’t,” Shanks said. “‘Sides, what if I end up having kids myself one day, y’know? Like hell if I’m gonna be a sh--rotten dad who can’t have fun with his own family.”

“Hahaha! Who wants _that_ ball and chain?”

“Oh lay _off_ ,” Yasopp snapped. “I’ve got a wife and kid back home. Your free will doesn’t stop just ‘cause you get married, dammit.”

Shanks plopped down into a chair, dropping Luffy onto his lap, still upside down. Luffy righted himself and grinned ear to ear. The music changed to some other energetic piece that the crew began singing along to.

“ _Me name’s Gold Rogers, a pirate am I! On a three-masted schooner from Loguetown Isle..._ ”

“Hey, Shanks?” Luffy asked above the noise. “Why’re there so many songs about Loguetown? I don’t even know where that is.”

“It’s close to Reverse Mountain. A lot of people stop there on their way to Grand Line,” Shanks replied. “But what really made it famous was that Roger lived there, back in the day. It was his hometown.”

Huh. Luffy sipped on his juice. A lot of people really liked that Roger or Rogers or Gold Rogers or--whatever his name was--guy. He couldn’t have been nearly as great as Shanks was, though. And Luffy already decided that he was going to be the greatest pirate. Would they make songs about him someday, too?

In the corner, Makino caught sight of the time, then of the darkness out the window. Luffy froze. Oh, no. Here she came to spoil the fun...

“Want me to walk you home, Luffy?” Makino suggested, leaning down to look at him. “It’s awfully dark outside.”

“Aww what?” Luffy set his half-full cup down on the table. “But I’m a whole seven and three quarters now!”

“And it’s _way_ past your bedtime, young man,” she countered, eyebrows raising in amusement. “I know you. If you stay up any later, you’re going to sleep late into the day tomorrow and feel groggy if you don’t go now.”

Luffy blew a raspberry at her and hunched his shoulders. If he slept all day tomorrow, he’d miss spending time with Shanks. But if he went to bed right now, he’d miss spending time with Shanks. A bad choice or a bad choice. Bah. He groaned and looked toward the singing crew, which was uniting in a chant of, “ _Wave over wave, sea over bow_ \--”

How come everyone got to stay up late except for him?

“I can take him,” Shanks offered, raising his hand.

Makino hesitated. “...You sure?”

“Hey, it’s just down the block. No big deal,” Shanks said, smiling. “You’re wrapped up here, anyhow.”

Makino watched the pirates give a toast to something or other--Luffy didn’t catch it--then gestured with her head toward the door. Well, going with Shanks meant more time with Shanks...but did he really have to go to bed now?

“Alright, Anchor--” Shanks began.

Luffy slid off his lap and tried to escape--keyword: tried. Like the little potato sack he was turning out to be, Shanks prevented his crafty scheme by hefting him up to sit on his shoulders. Oh. Hm. This was alright. Now he was taller than most people in the room. A very acceptable trade-off. Shanks waved to his crew quickly before he slipped out the door into the cooler night air. It was one of those nights that’d be good for running around and catching frogs. All warm and damp and stuff.

“I’m not tired,” Luffy insisted. “You can’t make me sleep.”

“Not tired after all _that_?” Shanks asked incredulously. “We’ve been goofing around for hours now. Even I’m a little tired. You sure you don’t wanna nap for a little bit?”

Luffy settled on Shanks’ shoulders, arms resting over the straw hat on his head. It bent under his weight. The noise from the bar faded away as Shanks strolled through the empty street to be replaced by the high-pitched summer frogs and crickets. It was quiet...and _warm_ … He yawned and then laid his head down over Shanks’.

“No…” Luffy said. He wasn’t tired. He just needed a moment. “I can keep goin’.”

Shanks hummed that song about Loguetown he and the crew always sang and Luffy tilted his head back and forth with the tune. It was so quiet and warm and nice and--no! He blinked rapidly. Don’t fall asleep! Don’t!!

“It’s alright if you fall asleep,” Shanks said. “No shame in it.”

Luffy buried his face in his arms. “But I wanna hang out with you some more...I can’t do that while I’m sleeping…Sleeping is dumb, I wish I didn’t have to sleep.”

“Hey.” Shanks tapped his ankles. “If you fall asleep up there, you’d be catching some Z’s with me. It counts as hanging out.”

The argument about what did and didn’t count as doing things from some time ago popped into Luffy’s head. Somehow, he didn’t feel like verbalizing it, and instead took to slumping over Shanks like he really was a potato sack.

“...Okay, fine. We’ll do nothin’ just this once,” Luffy muttered into his arms.

“Dahaha. That’s the spirit.”

The streetlights left a soft glow on everything in sight, so different to the look of daytime. It wasn’t bad. No, it was merely more comfortable. All the houses, all the closed up shops looked so comfortable. He squeezed Shanks’ head a bit. And there was Shanks here, too...he felt his eyes droop. He turned his head to look off to the side, cheek pressed against straw.

“ _Now the sun is on the harbor, love...and I wish I could remain_ ,” came Shank’s soft voice as he rested his eyes for a moment. “ _For I know it will be a long, long time...before I see you again_ …”


End file.
